DECO 2095A - Development economics

Pre-requisite

Familiarity with basic statistical concepts and regression analysis is required.

Course Description

This course introduces basic topics of new development economics, an approach that is grounded on the growing global concern for issues such as poverty and inequality coupled with rigorous economic analysis. The “old” approach to development economics was based in industrial economics, public planning and economic thinking, among others. The “new” approach is equally concerned with issues such as the elimination of poverty, the determinants of poverty traps, the causes and consequences of population growth, the implications of wealth and income inequalities on a country's growth prospects and the role and evaluation of policies. The exposure to new theories of economic development will give the students the chance to use economic theory and economic tools in ways that promote the welfare of underprivileged people.
Knowledge and understanding:
- Summarize the main issues facing developing countries ;
- Demonstrate familiarity with and assess the use of economic tools and statistical analysis in analyzing the problems of developing countries.
Skills:
- Select and apply appropriate techniques to analyze problems based on scenarios from development economics ;
- Use mathematical analysis to address economic problems in developing countries ;
- Demonstrate familiarity with statistical analysis as applied to studying problems of economic development ;
- Analyze, evaluate and interpret various measures of economic inequality.

Teachers

Pedagogical format

The material for this course consists in lecture notes, mandatory readings from textbooks (Ray, Basu and Gertler et al.) as well as further readings (non mandatory) from articles and books indicated in each lecture.

Course validation

There will be one first short exam of about 1 hour duration (30% of the final grade) around class 6 covering the material up to week ~5 and one Final Exam (70% of the final grade) on class 12. Bilingual dictionaries are authorized for the mid-term exam, but not for the final exam.